Category Archives: UK

EDL thug admits to stupidity

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A man who smashed a window during the English Defence League protest in Leicester has admitted causing criminal damage worth £1,500. Gareth Mooney (29) of Sandown Court, Wallsend, Tyne and Wear, broke the shop window of Big John’s Takeaway, in Humberstone Road on October 9 last year.

Liz Dodds, prosecuting, told Leicester magistrates that Mooney was one of about 200 protesters who broke through a police cordon in Queens Street at about 4pm to challenge a group of Asian youths. The trouble then spilled into Humberstone Road, where up to 20 members of the public had sought refuge in the takeaway.

She said: “Mr Mooney was caught on CCTV giving a forceful kick to the window, causing it to shatter in a spider effect. His behaviour instigated the subsequent attack on the building which caused a total of £5,000 damage.”

Mooney said: “I’m very sorry for the trouble I’ve caused. It was down to stupidity.” He was bailed to appear at North Tyneside Magistrates Court on April 12.

Leicester Mercury, 23 March 2011

Former marine in legal challenge to no-fly list

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A suburban man who describes himself as a patriotic, honorably discharged marine is one of 17 plaintiffs in a lawsuit involving the government’s no-fly list.

Abe Mashal is Muslim and says FBI agents told him he ended up on the list because he exchanged emails with a Muslim cleric they were monitoring. While Mashal is Muslim, his wife is Christian, and he says the e-mails were seeking advice on raising kids in a mixed-faith home.

Homeland Security will not confirm whether he’s on the no-fly list, let alone why.

Last April, Mashal went to Midway Airport to catch a flight to Spokane, Wash. He never got past the ticket counter. “I turned around, I didn’t even hear ’em coming and I’m surrounded by 30 TSA agents and Chicago police. She comes out and says, ‘You’re on the no-fly list, you can’t fly on any plane and the FBI is on there way here to speak with you,'” Mashal said.

Mashal says what followed was a series of interviews by FBI agents. They talked to him, his relatives, his friends and even a business client.

Two months after he learned he was on the no-fly list, Mashal says a pair of FBI agents sat him down at a local hotel. He says they told him if he worked as an informant, they would make sure he could fly again.

“They wanted me to go undercover at different mosques. They told me there are informants all over the area and they want me to find out about certain people for them. The strange part is, I’m not actively involved in any mosques. I’ve probably been to church with my wife more in the last year than the mosque,” Mashal said.

Mashal says he told the agents he didn’t think a married father of four should be moonlighting as an FBI informant.

In October, he received a letter from Homeland Security stating there would be no changes or corrections made to his status on the no-fly list. So, a few months back when the Mashal family wanted to go to Disney World, they drove. “They’re people out there that are bad and if this is the method they’re using to find them, it’s not effective and we’re not safe,” said Mashal’s wife Jessica.

The FBI and Homeland Security both declined to comment due to the pending lawsuit which was filed on behalf of Mashal and others by the American Civil Liberties Union.

ABC7Chicago.com, 21 March 2011

See also “Terror suspects in U.S. seek to clear names”, Associated Press, 21 March 2011

EDL and ENA clash over Dagenham anti-mosque protest

Posted on by Bob Pitt

ENA in DagenhamFar-right activists turned against one another as they protested against a mosque in Dagenham on Saturday.

Protesters believed to back the English Defence League (EDL) confronted the English Nationalist Alliance (ENA), which staged its latest protest against the Muslim place and worship and community centre in Green Lane.

Both groups say they want to fund a judicial review in the High Court to try to overturn a council decision which gave the centre the go-ahead despite more than 1,300 objections in January.

Protesters were segregated on either side of Green Lane as police supervised the demonstrations.

The ENA said it had cancelled a meeting about the judicial review, due to take place tonight, because of Saturday’s confrontation.

An EDL spokesman said the counter demonstration was not organised centrally, adding the organisation did not oppose the ENA but merely did not want to be associated with its members.

Barking & Dagenham Post, 21 March 2011

Drunk fined for racist abuse in kebab shop

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A drunk man screamed racist abuse at staff in his local takeaway after they refused to give him a free meal, a court heard. William McNeill also shouted “Al-Qaida” at workers in the kebab shop.

McNeill, 42, appeared for sentence at Livingston Sheriff Court yesterday. He had earlier pleaded guilty to acting in a racially aggravated manner and using racially offensive language towards restaurant worker Hazim Hashim on February 27 this year.

Sheriff Donald Muirhead fined McNeill £500. He told him: “The court has a job to teach people not to behave in a racially aggravated manner the way that you did.”

Scotsman, 18 March 2011

EDL stages anti-mosque protest in Reading

Posted on by Bob Pitt

EDL ReadingAround 200 members of the English Defence League came from across the country to demonstrate in Reading today (Saturday).

Members of the controversial group, which claims to oppose Muslim extremism, chanted and waved flags as they marched from the Three Guineas by Reading Station to Market Place, flanked by a heavy police presence.

They were greeted outside the Town Hall by around 50 demonstrators, who said the EDL were divisive, dangerous and not welcome in a multi-cultural, tolerant and united Reading. Edward Willis, 25, from Oxford Road, added: “We don’t tolerate or want them in our town, they are Nazis and fascists.”

Some EDL members said they were protesting against the building of the Oxford Road mosque and proposed east Reading mosque but others pointed to wider reasons, such as the building of mosques elsewhere in Britain, and called for more to be done to tackle Muslim extremism.

Among the EDL supporters was founder Tommy Robinson, from Luton, and a 38-year-old builder, from Oxford Road, who did not want to give his name but said he helped organise the protest. He described the Oxford Road mosque as an “absolute eyesore” and added: “We don’t want another one being built in east Reading.”

Reading Borough Council has released a statement condemning the “racist demonstration”. Council leader, Andrew Cumpsty, said: “We in Reading have excellent relations between our varied and vibrant communities. Hatred and division have no place in civilised political debate and I condemn the activities of this small minority. In Reading we celebrate all the varied parts of our town, as all together we are stronger and richer because of our diversity.”

Reading Chronicle, 19 March 2011

Update:  See also BBC News, 20 March 2011

Police sergeant found guilty of abusing Muslim colleague keeps his job

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Gavin RossA police sergeant convicted of a race hate crime against a fellow officer has kept his job, The Herald can reveal.

Strathclyde’s Gavin Ross was fined £500 at Dunfermline Sheriff Court last year after being found guilty of racially abusing an Asian colleague at a Christmas night out. However, the licensing sergeant has been told he can continue at his current position and rank after an internal police misconduct hearing.

His victim, Sergeant Amar Shakoor, last night said he was “deeply disappointed” with the punishment meted out to Mr Ross, who has had to forgo an anticipated pay rise. Mr Shakoor, who is chairman of the Scottish Muslim Police Association, said:

“He has been dealt with leniently. People who have committed similar offences got the sack. The force is supposed to have a zero-tolerance attitude policy towards racism, islamophobia, sexism and homophobia, and they should stand by that. This decision does not instill confidence among minority officers or the community at large.”

The Strathclyde officers worked together at the Tulliallan police training college in Kincardine, Fife, until Mr Ross used a race slur against Mr Shakoor at a staff night out on December 10, 2009. Mr Ross denied making the remark but was overheard by another colleague at the dinner in the The Unicorn restaurant in Kincardine.

It was alleged he called Mr Shakoor a “f****** Muslim b******”. But Mr Ross claimed he had been misheard and actually said he was “a f****** amusing b******”. Mr Ross last year told Dunfermline Sheriff Court that he, as a gay man, would never make offensive remarks of that kind because he himself had been the victim of hate crimes.

News that Mr Ross had not been drummed out of the force – or even demoted – reverberated around Glasgow’s Muslim communities yesterday. Some leading opinion-formers in the community last night expressed surprise that action against Mr Ross had not been tougher.

The Herald, 17 March 2011